Four Bangladeshis Among 19 Convicted in Bardhaman Blast Case

Kolkata: A special NIA court has convicted 19 people, including four Bangladeshi citizens, in the 2014 Burdwan blast case, officials said on Wednesday.

All these convicts have confessed to their crimes before the court, they said.

Two people were killed when an improvised explosive device, that they were making, went off in the busy Khagragarh locality of West Bengal’s Bardhaman district on October 2, 2014.

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The house was taken on rent by the banned Jamat-ul-Mujaheedin of Bangladesh (JMB) and masked it as a burqa stitching factory, officials said.

“The investigation by NIA revealed a conspiracy by JMB (Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) to radicalise, recruit and provide training in arms and explosives to its members in India as well as to commit terrorist acts and wage war against the democratically established Governments of India and Bangladesh,” the NIA said in a statement.

A large number of IEDs, explosives, hand grenades, training videos were recovered during investigation, it said.

The probe agency spokesperson said that presently, 30 arrested charge sheeted accused persons are in judicial custody of the Special Court for NIA cases at Kolkata.